


Sacrifices

by GalaxyAqua



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa 3: The End of 希望ヶ峰学園 | The End of Kibougamine Gakuen | End of Hope's Peak High School
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Drabble, F/M, Introspection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7983481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GalaxyAqua/pseuds/GalaxyAqua
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kirigiri, Naegi, and the gambles they have to take.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifices

**Author's Note:**

> spoilers up to ep 9 of mirai-hen/future arc

 

> _"Please don't be sad now,_
> 
> _I really believe_
> 
> _you were the greatest thing that ever happened to me."_
> 
> \- Terrible Things, Mayday Parade

 

The thing is, Kirigiri has a favor she wants to repay – and now there is no way out of it. It’s a favor she _has_ to repay, and a time limit hanging ominously over her head reminds her just so. The coward’s way out is irrational, and she knows she will not run away. So the only logical response is to pay it dutifully and gracefully, as best she can. It is what it is.

It’s not do or die. She won’t be doing anything, but balancing the scales of luck and hope against time and despair.

Inaction will lead to her demise, she is well aware.

For one, she of all people already knows the extent of Makoto Naegi’s trust. Of his blind optimism and his inner strength. She of all people knows the world of possibilities that lie in his hope. His constant strive for the better future. His importance, not only as the beacon of hope, but as a human being so dear to her heart.

She also knew, much further back than was necessary, that she would be far too naïve to believe that they’d both be alive at the finale of this era. Surviving _once_ doesn’t mean anything more than dropping a bigger target onto their heads, and whatever it was that Future Foundation thought in that regard, there was no denying that they were key suspects _because_ of their survival.

And surviving twice might just be a little too much.

Naegi, earnest and hopeful as ever, must have thought otherwise.

But when Kirigiri Kyouko laid eyes on her forbidden action for the first time – on the blaring red rule that pulsated quietly in circles around her wrist – she knew she was ready for whatever it may come to.

Her life, or his.

But,

Really,

They had made this gamble before, hadn’t they?  

Back then.

They had really thought,

Back in the mutual killing at Hope’s Peak,

Naegi had sacrificed himself.

For her curiosity to be satiated.

And the others,

Well,

Did they really think _Makoto Naegi_ murdered _Mukuro Ikusaba?_

He may have been saved, he may have survived, but it doesn’t change the fact that he took the bullet for a crime he’d never done: just to keep her selfish head on her shoulders. To keep her investigation alive in the aftermath of his supposed execution.

She would have been the one to go – Naegi the only one able to do so; but he trusted her. He trusted her with his life.

He sacrificed himself for the truth.

There’s no way,

There is no way in hell that she could even consider killing him – for her own benefit or otherwise – again.

She cares too much about him for that. She loves him too much to put her interests before him any more: she can’t let him go, can’t let him know either, not when they are so close to the end. Not when the mystery behind the Tragedy is right there, not when the overwhelming stench of despair is so close to drowning them.

So Kirigiri does as need be.

She does what she can and what she’s good at: collecting clues, unlocking secrets, finding answers, and connecting the pieces together. She fixes the bigger picture together, all in the framework of her mind, and thinks about _what she can do_ to ensure the hope of the world survives without her.

She’s at her absolute limit, sometimes, but she can’t let anyone see. She’s the rock, the sturdy foundation, and even if there’s nothing keeping her up anymore – she needs to support the ones she cares about the most. For Asahina and for Naegi, her steadfast calmness and honesty is keeping them afloat.

If her façade falls, it’s all over.

Though,

She’s forgotten how incredibly lonely it is to be working in the cavern of her own mind – with no push and pull of _someone_ saying _that’s not quite right, that’s not it,_ or even simply, _you’re amazing, Kirigiri…_

Mitarai, he’s… not enough. He’s too sensible, too sensitive and impressionable – a shadow of Naegi, possibly, but saying _maybe Munakata is the mastermind_ is the difference between him and the Ultimate Hope. Naegi would say _why? What motive does Munakata have? What happened to Munakata – that could possibly make him do this? What evidence is there that suggests Munakata could even do this?_

It’s thinking like Naegi that keeps her going, and they’ve been duped by the death of Junko Enoshima before, so Kirigiri has taken that into account, and examined every corpse with far more detail than necessary. Her keen eyes learn, her gloved fingers grasp at the tiniest trails of _something_ , and she figures it all out, piece by piece.

She hears, she breathes, she tastes, and she inches closer and closer to the truth.

But,

The information at her fingertips – she knows well that she can’t pass it onto Naegi easily. Not with the cameras around, not with Mitarai at her heels and not with anybody remotely close enough to hear. But she’s done things in tight spaces before, over and over in the past. Here lies the fate of the world, and _she’s only one person._

She knows Naegi trusts her, just as much as she trusts him, so she _trusts him to figure it out even when she’s gone –_

When she goes,

When it’s really the end of Kirigiri Kyouko.

But,

Is it ever really the end?

Certainly, it’s true that Kirigiri cannot pass anything onto Naegi directly – little besides words of encouragement and faith, which brighten his eyes like a sunrise, and words of praise that bring color to his cold cheeks, adorable – but she isn’t going to go down without a fight.

The infectious belief that _hope always prevails_ has taken her over, and in her final stand, she is going to make sure that despair doesn’t win.

Despair will not win.

Despair cannot win, _she won’t let despair win,_ there’s no fucking way.

Kirigiri won’t be a sacrifice for despair – she won’t die in vain like Kizakura died for her sake, fruitless and without remedy – she will only be a sacrifice for hope,

Only hope,

And she pleas for Naegi to understand that.

It’s not his fault. It will never be his fault. He is not the person to blame.

He didn’t _even know._ She made sure of it. Never to utter the words “Passing the fourth round with Makoto Naegi alive” – not to him, not to anyone. She understands, already, how the outcome would have changed. And she can’t take that risk.  

It is what it is.

She is an instrument in constructing the ultimate stage: the end of despair, the end of the Tragedy, the end of Hope’s Peak Academy.

She will die, for the world to be reborn.

And she’s fine with that.

She has a favor she wants to repay, after all.

 

* * *

 

 

But,

Really,

She wishes she could have at least said,

“I love you,”

Before her last image of him – quiet, drifting, believing they’d see each other again – faded to black.


End file.
